A wreck involving a motorcycle and a sport utility vehicle backed up lunchtime traffic on Thompson Bridge Road on Thursday and sent one motorcyclist to the hospital.

The driver of the SUV, Donna Johnson, a 60-year-old Gainesville resident, was charged with failure to yield while turning left after she collided with a blue motorcycle that was headed south on Ga. 60 as she was attempting to turn left onto Linwood Drive, said Georgia State Patrol Operator Brandon Marcus.

Northeast Georgia Medical Center has adopted a new payment policy that requires nonemergency patients to pay a greater portion of their bill in advance.

As of June 1, all patients who visit the emergency room will be evaluated to determine whether they have a truly emergency condition. If the patient has a minor condition that doesn't require emergency treatment, they can either go to a primary care facility or stay in the ER and get treated, but pay up front.

Local authorities expect few changes when a revised law restricting where registered sex offenders may live goes into effect July 1, while one legal advocacy group says the revisions to the law didn't go far enough.

A preliminary snapshot of this year's Georgia's state exam results are depicting a disappointing picture for local schools, and have left teachers, parents and students on pins and needles waiting for official results and the finger pointing that is sure to follow.

When a RaceTrac gas station on the Seasons on Lanier property seemed like nearly a done deal, Gainesville City Councilman George Wangemann came up with a strategy to defeat the controversial rezoning on its second reading.

Following a tie vote at Tuesday's City Council meeting, the plans for the gas station are dead - for at least six months.

A plot of land that was once doomed to be a spray field will blossom into an industrial park within a few years if construction goes as smoothly as it has for others in the area.

The Gainesville and Hall County Development Authority approved the intergovernmental development agreement that will allow Gainesville and Hall County to collaborate on the new industrial park at a meeting Tuesday.

No one came to the Central Office to oppose the Hall County School System's proposal to expand its drug testing program to include student drivers, but one parent said he wants to see the school system tackle steroids in athletics.

A $44.6 billion 2016 fiscal year state budget approved Thursday by the Georgia House would close previous cuts to public education spending, slash funding for low-interest student loans and ask local school districts to make $103 million more in employer contributions to keep state insurance coverage for some part-time school employees.

As state lawmakers push closer to Crossover Day - the 30th day of the 40-day session when bills have to pass out of either the House or Senate, which is tentatively set for March 13 - a grab bag of news is coming out of Atlanta.

Hall County's Latino communities were left in limbo after a federal judge's ruling last week blocked President Barack Obama's executive action to protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.